Those pics have pissed me right off!! I did not know that it was possible to get such results so quickly.

“Right”, I cried, and straight on to the internet and bought myself a grow light. It is only a single tube one and cost £20. Nothing big or complex is needed because the seedlings are so small. If it helps me to get plants even a quarter of the size of Ed’s plants in a month or so, then I shall be deliriously happy.

But I have a small philosophical problem. My objective has always been to grow these plants with the least possible expense. The reason for that is because I vaguely imagine that many people who may wish to grow their own stuff may be hard up. So my searches for advice and my practices have been to keep costs absolutely minimal. The point is that if you have only space to grow, say, 30 plants, you don’t want to spend lots of cash to grow the plants, cure the produce and make the cigs. Well, not to start with at any rate. That is why I followed Rose’s suggestions – the towelling method of yellowing the leaves – to start with.

I also intend to acquire a greenhouse. It need not be big – just big enough to be useful.

I suppose that it is a good thing to keep busy, busy when one becomes aged.

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The Canadian Health Zealots, and the Canadian Government, are hypocrites. They pretend to care about ‘health’, but, in reality, their ‘caring’ is a sham. That is what happens when a group of well-meaning innocents start to agitate about some ‘worthy cause’: it does not take long for charlatans to see a nice little goldmine.

A case in point is the experience of one, Catherine Nissen from Alberta, Canada.

She decided that she wanted to try snus. She liked it. She was a non-smoker. And then the Canadian (Alberta?) Government wapped a huge tax on snus, so that a tin of snus costs $Can 25, whilst a pack of 20 cigs costs $Can 12. There is a problem in that she does not state the equivalence in terms of usage – how long would a tin of snus last, as compared with a pack of cigs? How many little snus packets are there in a tin, and is each one the equivalent of one cig? However, the tenor of her statement suggests that the effect of the tax is to make snus at least as expensive as cigs, and possibly more so. The result was that Catherine started to smoke cigs from time to time because they were cheaper. You can read her story here:

The importance of her story is that Government taxation can create the appearance of a ‘gateway’ effect from snus (and thus also from ecigs, if they too became heavily taxed) to cigarettes. Imagine what would happen if smokers who, for cost reasons rather than health reasons, had stopped smoking and taken up vaping were to find that the cost of vaping has overtaken the cost of smoking due to draconian taxes. IF the reason for swapping from smoking to vaping was only cost, then, clearly, they would revert to smoking. Thus, if enough people were affected to show statistically, there would appear to be a ‘gateway’ effect from vaping to smoking.

If the Canadian politicians were so determined to cut smoking, why did they introduce a draconian tax on snus? We could also ask why Australian politicians have banned ecig juices which contain nicotine.

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The answer is clear. There can only be two alternatives. Either the danger of smoking has been enormously exaggerated, or the Canadian and Australian Governments are either sick or stupid or charlatans. Clearly, the charlatans will always be able to lead the sick and stupid.

Is the phrase ‘sick and stupid’ overdoing it? I suppose so, but it depends upon the definition of ‘sick’ and ‘stupid’. Since a committee of The Elite in the WHO decided to foist upon us a new definition of ‘diseases’ (to include the physical effects of poisons, for example), I see no reason that I should not describe a politician who votes for ‘banning smoking in cars where there are kids’ as suffering from a disease, which we might call “Infantile Superiority Incremental Syndrome”. ISIS, for short.

The word ‘stupid’, is, of course, relative. I have no doubt that Einstein was ‘stupid’ in some ways. For example, daughter two, the teacher, seems to have no conception of the the meaning of the word ‘tidy’…. Oh….. except as it applies to her pupils.

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It seems to me that politicians, by and large, are flaccid and plasticised. That is why they allow themselves to be ‘whipped’. No self-respecting MP, elected by the people of his constituency, should allow himself to be forced into any sort of compliance with the dictats of The Elite. It makes sense that every person who is elected to represent his constituents in Parliament for a period of five years should be absolutely and totally independent of FORCE. The FORCE that I am talking about is the FORCE inflicted upon politicians by Health Zealots and their associated Charlatans. He should regard his tenure of the position of MP for his constituents as for the period of five years only, and not a second longer. He must do as his conscience decides, and not as The Elite decide.

Thus, our system of ‘first past the post’ is not as bad as it seems, provided that each MP understands that his priority is his constituents. If 20% of his constituents are smokers, he must give them due consideration. They are not reptiles.

Is it not really, really, obvious? And does not the ridiculous taxing of snus in Alberta, Canada, show it to be true?

4 Responses to “Ed’s Plant pics===Canada’s Ecig Hypocracy”

Yes, I must agree that those pictures are truly distressing, considering my plants are now 3 weeks old, and still only have the first set of small, true leaves on them. While my seedlings were doing poorly in compost on the windowsill, I transplanted them into my greenhouse 2 days ago – not only did they not go back at all, but they have actually begun to thrive overnight. My greenhouse is not well situated – it is not in direct sunlight for the entirety of the day, etc. But there is something, I imagine, to be said for being outside beyond the ‘stuffy’ air of the house. I built my greenhouse really cheaply. It had to be sturdy, because of the severe winds I get in my area. I used old, recycled windows, sitting on 3 levels of blocks that were ‘seconds’ and not usable for housing. One thing I will advise you – you will determine that XX is the size that you need for your greenhouse, and build it according to those specs. Almost immediately, you will determine that XX is way too small. Build your greenhouse larger than you expect you will need!!

Thanks for the tip re greenhouse!
I think that one of the advantages of a greenhouse (which also goes for cloches and cold frames) is that they keep the cold winds and rain off the young plants. My daughter has two which seem to be ideal to me from the point of view of size. They are tall enough to walk into and measure about 6′ x 3′. I am not that interested in gardening as such, I’m afraid. Nearly all the stuff in my garden is perennial. The greenhouse will only be used for baccy plants and storing plant pots, weedkillers and such.
I’m going to cadge one of my daughters since she is not very interested in gardening either. She doesn’t use them. They are made of clear plastic as far as I can see.
I’m glad that your plants are looking up. You did very well last year!

The point is, it can be accomplished on a very low budget. The bank of fluorescents were homemade. A 4×2 plywood board painted matt white, then used, salvaged aquarium lighting ballasts to power 4x4ft, 38watt tubes. The set-up is on a timer to run for 18hours. I use this from the start of the season for all my veggies and it gives them a huge boost. If used just for tobacco, you would only be using it for around 4-6 weeks, so it’s pennies to run as well. Considering the price of shop bought tobacco these days, it’s a no brainer really.

I try, whenever possible to cut costs but keep quality high and this includes making my own compost and also making my own feed. Fertilisers can cost quite a bit so supplementing with your home made fertilisers makes sense. I have a large patch of comfrey, which gets pressed and makes a great high potash feed. You can also make a great general purpose feed by using nettles.

I personally decided against buying/building a greenhouse and prefer the mobility that cloches and small polytunnels afford. They can also be stored away and the ground used for other stuff rather than being idle for months.

Just me being facetious! Your plants are great.
I have quite a big back garden, so I have no problem with space for a greenhouse. I have already earmarked a spot (see also note about in JB’s comment).
Clever if you to make your own growlight. JB built her own greenhouse and you made you own growlight – I’m beginning to feel somewhat inadequate!
Not to be outdone, I went up to daughter 2’s house this evening and put up a big mirror in her bathroom. It measures 44″ x about 30″. What is it with the female of the species that they need huge mirrors all over the place?
I’m going to be using some sort of heath robinson device to position the growlight when it arrives. I want to be able to use it and then put it away. What swung me into buying one was the fact that they emit the right sort of light for plants, and they do not give off much heat. That is in addition to your pics.
I note that you do a lot of gardening, so it makes a lot of sense to make your own fertiliser etc.